Save the libraries – a nation’s great equalizers

Same this “story from the Christian Science Monitor online.
‘What would America be without its public libraries? We may get a chance to find out because libraries are facing unprecedented economic challenges. Budget cuts have weakened or closed libraries in more than 40 states in the past year.'”

April 19, 2004 by rochelle Uncategorized 6

Eli says:

April 19, 2004 at 6:28 pm

Public Libraries
Libraries are the original public service industry. Are they serving the public? Governing bodies could not close libraries if the libraries were a vital service to the public. One cause could be the INTERNET. Now everyone has access to the world from their homes. The other is that many libraries have not definitively shown that they are family friendly or a place to be educated.

The increase of controversies involving access to graphic materials on the INTERNET, the lost art of giving information that is age appropriate, purchasing materials that are borderline pornography may also have something to do with lack of interest. Education has also dropped its standards from what they were, so the need for the library to do homework is no longer crucial. A student can get an “a” for work today that would have been unacceptable a generation ago. We as professionals have to seriously redefine the library in the 21st century to meet the needs of the individual and family education. If libraries were less political and more family friendly there might be a leg to stand on.

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kctipton says:

April 19, 2004 at 7:03 pm

Re:Public Libraries
Internet is keeping people at home AND is driving people away? Wow. I don’t know if it’s as straightforward as that.

Let’s examine what does not get cut to try to determine why library budgets do get cut. I have no statistics to try to do this, but my educated guess is that this post 9/11 world requires (or seems to) more money for fire and ambulance and police services than ever before, and this sucks up money in a huge way.

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infodiva says:

April 19, 2004 at 7:17 pm

Re:Public Libraries
I would agree with Eli that the internet is keeping those who can afford to access it at home, or with the mistaken notion that it replaces other information formats, while at the same time encouraging others *who may have otherwise never darkened the door of a library* to come in and access content that is really inappropriate for public viewing. (sex acts, etc…)

I’m now trying to do library outreach, and figured out that I have been hired partially because the riff-raff viewing porn have pretty much chased away many of the regular customers.

While I hate filtering and limiting content, at some point it may have to be done in most libraries–just so the people who need to use the web and the databases can do so without a peep show.

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Eli says:

April 19, 2004 at 7:25 pm

Re:Public Libraries
I am sorry you have to deal with those who have chased away the regulars. Your case and attempt to do outreach really proves what has been said that libraries have failed to keep services age appropriate and are more agenda driven than information driven. Good luck in all your efforts.

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Steffers says:

April 19, 2004 at 7:52 pm

Re:Public Libraries
It really is awful that people who were (and probably still are but from a distance) library supporters have gotten driven out by the bad apples. However, from the peon level, I don’t see the day-to-day operations as being “agenda driven”. I think what we (at my library) have always tried to do is provide access to new resources, in this case the internet. I don’t think that anyone had any idea that when libraries began offering access to the internet that it would become the problem it is today. I think that most people believed it would be used as the reference department is used, as the fiction section is used… and to a certain extent it is. It is the bad apples that are spoiling it for the whole bunch. I don’t like filters but I don’t like looking at porn while I’m working even more. There has to be a balance, how can we provide proper access to materials without driving out the real users?
IMHO, I think that many of the policy makers who are staunchly anti-filters don’t work with the public. Maybe they’ve lost touch with what our users want/need.

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Samantha says:

April 19, 2004 at 11:04 pm

saving libraries=paying for them
I really disagree that the reason libraries are having problems is because people come in and use the internet to look at porn. From my experience this is a small minority of users; and in the libraries I’ve worked at, including a busy public library, people who were making a nuisance of themselves by obviously looking at porn were thrown out. As well they should. Having privacy may be a right but annoying other patrons surely is not.

The real reason, in my humble opinion, and which seems to be backed up by the article in the Monitor, is there just isn’t funding for libraries. State budgets are definitely suffering due to the bad economy. And what’s worse, everyone is clamoring for tax cuts. This is what really gets me angry. This started (for me, being from Washington state) DURING the economic boom of the 90s. People seem to have this sense of entitlement toward public services. They feel the library should be open longer hours, have more computers and free printing and lots of copies of that Grisham bestseller so they don’t have to wait to read it. But the government can’t have their hard earned money, by gum! It’s theirs!

Americans need to understand that these services are NOT free and that they are worthwhile. Your taxes go right back to you in the form of services such as libraries. Libraries need to get this message out. Politicians need to stop being wusses and make sure services are fully funded, even if it means raising taxes. And taxpayers need to suck it up. End of rant.

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